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First Sunday after Christmas
Luke 2:25-40
December 29, 2002
!
Consolation and Comfort Found in a Babies Arms
*Go ahead pick the baby up.*
*Introduction*: We have all seen it.
A child gets sick or hurt or is afraid and we hear the familiar words, “I want my Mommy, I want my mommy”.
People around the child may offer a hand or their lap but the child refuses to be comforted.
At long last mother comes and at the sight of her the child runs head long for mothers arms.
Only in mother’s arms does the child feel safe.
And only in mom’s arms does the child find the comfort and consolation it desperately wants and needs.
Look with me at Simeon, an old man but still a child, a child of God.
He has been waiting desperately for his Savior.
He has been waiting for the comfort and consolation of Israel and of himself.
He could not find comfort anywhere but in the promised Savior.
Being a man led by the Spirit of God.
God told Simeon that he would live to see the Savior.
As an old man, with little time left in this life, he was waiting to see His own salvation.
As Simeon walked the temple courts He spotted Mary and the child, Jesus.
Like a child running for the comfort and safety of its mother, Simeon picks the baby Jesus up and cradles Him in His arms.
He burst forth in a wonderful song of praise to God.
The Savior of the nations has come.
More importantly, Simeon’s Savior has come to Him.
!
Stop and Pick Up the Baby
Christmas has come and gone.
For many people all that is left of Christmas are leftovers and credit card bills.
The good feelings have begun to fade.
Good will toward men is but a memory.
Many of us are just glad we survived.
During Christmas almost all of us have stopped to take a look at the baby lying in the manger.
Perhaps we have even stood in awe of what God has done, the creator of the universe laying on a bed of hay.
The king of kings and Lord of Lords comes to our world born in destitute poverty.
It is a miracle.
The Savior of the Nations has come.
As wonderful as it is, the temptation is to move on from Christmas and the manger and go on to the next thing in our busy lives.
Resist the temptation.
Go with me back to the to the manger.
Instead of looking at the baby from a distance perhaps we need to do what Simeon did, to go ahead and pick the baby up.
Let us hold Jesus up in our own arms by faith and see Him as the only comfort and consolation of our souls.
He may be the Savior of the Nations but He is your Savior and He is my Savior.
Go ahead and pick the baby Jesus up and see the salvation that God has prepared for you.
!
The Redeemer Comes To Be Redeemed
According to the Law of God given through the prophet Moses, forty days after giving birth the mother and newborn child were required to go to the temple.
There she was required to present a yearling lamb and a dove as a burnt offering so that she would be purified from the bloody process of giving birth where life-giving blood is spilled.
Mary and Joseph, because they were poor, offered a pair of doves or two young pigeons.
Jesus, as the first-born child, also had to be consecrated to the Lord and redeemed back from the Lord.
The Redeemer had to be redeemed.
To understand this we have to remember when the Lord struck down all the first-born children of Egypt.
From that time on the Lord claimed all first-born children as His own.
To take them back from the Lord, parents were required to pay five shekels, a shekel equaled about a days wage.
As Mary, Joseph and Jesus were fulfilling the Law at the temple Simeon spotted the infant Jesus.
!
Simeon
We do not know a great deal about Simeon, so far as the details of his past life are concerned.
All we know for certain about Simeon is that he was a native of Jerusalem.
He was a man, evidently, well advanced for His years; a patriarchal man; a man who had lived according to high principles.
He was honest, truthful and dealt fairly with his fellow man.
Simeon was a religious man.
He didn’t just practice the forms of religion; he was truly devout.
His heart was in his religion, and religion was in his heart.
He loved God and he loved God’s house.
He loved the worship services of God’s house.
Simeon was one of those people in Israel who knew, and cherished, God’s promise of sending a Redeemer.
He had not lost his faith because so many centuries had passed by without the promise having been fulfilled.
He was a justified child of God, made righteous in the eyes of God, because of his faith in the promised Savior.
Simeon was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
He was led by the Spirit.
The Spirit, perhaps through the Scriptures, gave him the knowledge that the Savior was to be born in his lifetime.
That same Spirit told Him that He would see the Savior with his own eyes.
Simeon had a lot going for him.
He was faithful and devoted to God.
He was a good and honest man who loved God and his fellow man.
He was religious, worshiping regularly in the house of God.
He did all the things that you would expect a religious person to do.
And Simeon was led by the Spirit of God.
Simeon had a lot going for him.
In spite of it all he never lost his focus of the most important thing, seeing his Savior, knowing his Savior and embracing his Savior in his heart and in his arms.
He could have relied on his own piety and religiousness.
He could have counted on his own honesty and integrity for approval with God.
He could have focused his attention on his Spirit led and Spirit filled life.
But he did none of these things.
Rather, his attention was focused on the most important one, Jesus his Savior.
Without Jesus Simeon’s devotion to God, His good life, and being filled with the Spirit would mean absolutely nothing.
In Jesus Simeon embraced the salvation of His soul and his Redeemer.
!
Where is our Focus – Pick the Baby Up, He is Yours
Within the week we have celebrated our Christmas services.
We have gathered, with rejoicing around the manger, which cradled the Christ child.
This is good and it says a lot.
But if this is all we have done it is not enough.
The Christ child had to be born and laid in a manger.
But if He has not been born and laid in our hearts His earthly birth means nothing.
It is a presumptuous question, especially when speaking to seasoned Christians, but it is important to ask whether Christ has been born in our hearts.
It is possible to get caught up in the outward forms of religion.
There are many formal routines and churchly practices.
Many of them are very attractive and keep us active.
With these churchly routines it is possible to leave Christ out, like passing by the manger without stopping.
Stop!
Stop and behold the baby Jesus.
Go ahead and pick the baby up.
By faith pick Jesus up in you arms and embrace Him.
He is your baby, given to you for your salvation.
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